Archfiend

Chapter 408: Dharmadhatu (12)

Xu Yangyi calmly watched Rocjourney. The other’s expression was already ashen, and veins bulged out on his forehead.

Rocjourney, who could be considered blessed by fortune, couldn’t imagine it… that the move just now from an upper-realm cultivator from the End of Days—a cultivator without rank—was enough to seriously injure him! It was to the extent… that he would possibly have to manifest his true form!

This was the person he had ridiculed?

Had Earth… truly entered the End of Days?

But in the next second, he almost cried out in surprise because the frost scattered by Enihilus floated into view again!

“Apologize,” Enihilus repeated.

Xu Yangyi observed Rocjourney coldly. Although he was looking up from below, he gave rise to an illusion that he was looking down from above.

To overlook from level land, to face upwards from the mind.

“I… I…” Almost unable to contain his emotions, Rocjourney tightly clenched his molars, his words drifting out from between gritted teeth. “I…” 

He continued to repeat the very first part of his sentence. He could no longer speak. In apologizing to someone he’d just been calling an insect a little while ago, his self-respect couldn’t accept it!

“I…” Crimson-faced, he suddenly shouted out, “I don’t believe it! You dare attack me?!”

Before his voice even fell, the frost 200 meters all around loudly exploded!

“You!!!” Enihilus turned his head around. Even a monk could become somewhat angry. At this moment, he was quickly developing a sore throat! Needless of any further consideration, his palm swung out and struck the middle of Rocjourney’s back! “Apologize to this benefactor! At once!”

“Can you not see?! He truly dares to kill you! Be mindful of who you are!”

BOOM! There was no time to manage a defense. The fury of Great Circle Foundation Establishment erupted, and Rocjourney was dashed away into the clouds with a palm strike. He then rumbled into the soil. Only a few seconds later did he lower his head, bracing himself with both of his hands. His voice was like a mosquito’s whine. “I… concede…”

“That’s not what I want to hear.” Xu Yangyi’s eyes flashed. Boundless frost cut forth deathly traces and directly pressured Rocjourney’s entire body!

“Whether you concede or not isn’t related to me at all.”

Cold wind whistled, and Rocjourney felt terrible crisis again. In his mind, the twanging bowstring called “pride” snapped, and he said despondently, “I apologize! I apologize!”

However, the frost didn’t slow down by any respect!

“Not sincere enough… I won’t accept a half-hearted apology!”

Swoosh!!! A blizzard of frost turned into a giant hand of chilling ice. Its swiftness even made Enihilus suck in deeply.

While Rocjourney still felt danger moments ago… it had now become killing intent!

“I was wrong!!!” Rocjourney’s entire back was soaked with cold sweat. This time, he cast himself straight onto the lawn, his voice somewhat hoarse. “I solemnly apologize! Fellow Daoist! Please be lenient!”

Whoosh! The giant hand bearing down on him answered and shattered.

It was quiet.

Who could’ve imagined that the haughty Rocjourney would actually find himself in such a situation in the end?

“Benefactor, act with integrity and leave behind a thread of life.” Enihilus looked at Xu Yangyi vigilantly, his spiritual force already clambering up to the peak. If Rocjourney’s apology hadn’t been given, then Xu Yangyi wouldn’t have held back, this was the feeling he had. This was why he hadn’t been concerned. But, if Xu Yangyi wantonly attacked again… 

Just like an ocean tide, spiritual pressure that loomed close to Core Formation was released, no longer masked at all.

Xu Yangyi knew when to stop. Currently, he still wasn’t an opponent for Great Circle Foundation Establishment. In particular… this old monk was quite strange. 

“I think.” Xu Yangyi patted his camouflage attire and sat down cross-legged. “I have the qualifications to know where this place is now.”

Rocjourney wordlessly raised his head. His face was flushed red, but suddenly ashened again. He flickered away, and disappeared where he was without so much as an echo.

No one was capable of enduring such humiliation any longer.

Enihilus deeply eyed Xu Yangyi and didn’t answer straight away. He closed his eyes and opened them again after a full three minutes. His decrepit eyes looked far away with some ruefulness. He said after ages, “This place… is known as the Garden of the Twin Sal-Trees…”

“He who is the Revered One of the World, Siddhartha Guatama, rests here.”

These words caused Xu Yangyi’s head to snap up, and he gazed intently at Enihilus. The old monk’s calm met Xu Yangyi. A few seconds later, Xu Yangyi’s breathing became a little rushed, and he said deeply, “A monk doesn’t lie. Do you know who Siddhartha Guatama is?”

“I know.” Enihilus chuckled faintly, “The Revered One of the World, the Founder of Buddhism, gods and buddhas… a figure of legend. However, who told benefactor that these legends are fabricated?”

Xu Yangyi was left speechless, unable to reply.

Xiaoqing was real, and the Gold-Banded Staff was also real… so what else was fake? Where did the truth hide in legend?

“Benefactor, don’t be rash. Since you have come… you have proven your strength. All of this here, you will know of,” Enihilus made a long sigh, “In fact… I find myself in a quandary…”

“If I don’t give benefactor a detailed account of the situation below, you might not even have a chance later. But if I tell benefactor, you might not dare to go… however… the Clearcloud Realm’s great changes are so sudden. Simply no one else can enter.” He looked at Xu Yangyi with a deep glance. “This pook monk has always been hoping for a Dao Master to come. At the very least, a Great Circle Foundation Establishment. I never expected that the one to come… would actually only be initial Foundation Establishment.”

The look in Xu Yangyi’s eyes faintly stirred. “Fellow Daoist doesn’t favor me?”

Enihilus didn’t reply. After a long time, he said without answering the question, “Whether or not I favor you or not, what relation is there? Could there be that I have someone else to choose now?”

“Since no one else has entered, let’s get straight to the topic. We don’t have much time anymore. The Clearcloud Realm’s destruction is imminent. Another minute wasted is another minute of danger.” Xu Yangyi said calmly, “So talk. I’m all ears. Maybe the things I’ve seen is worse than what you can imagine. Don’t fool me with a lie like this place is the so-called Buddha’s resting place. As if Buddha’s resting place only has two Foundation Establishment cultivators standing guard, that’ll make the people from the Buddhist Monastery laugh their heads off.”

Enihilus gently sighed, the prayer beads in his hands gently swiveled, and he eventually said, “This place is indeed the Garden of the Twin Sal-Trees.”

“This poor monk… has another name. A name I haven’t used in a long time… a name that no one has called me… However, benefactor should know.”

“Realm Spirit.”

Realm Spirit!

These two words were no less than a thunderclap in Xu Yangyi’s ears!

Enihilus was the Realm Spirit?

In that case… what was the thing that called itself the Realm Spirit, the entity he’d once suspected of being one of Great Sage Sun’s hairs?

Enihilus’s first sentence was astonishing!

“I am indeed the Realm Spirit.” Enihilus seemed to feel that he didn’t have to prove it. “Believe it or not, I do not, and am not capable of proving it.”

“I was born with heaven and earth, and I shall be extinguished with heaven and earth… Apart from this, I cannot find any other way to provide proof.”

“But the Clearcloud Realm has existed for over 600 million years,” Xu Yangyi immediately questioned.

“But civilization has only arisen in the last 2,000 years,” Enihilus said, “If not for civilization’s golden age, a Realm Spirit cannot arise. According to reason, my emergence still required some time, but I am indebted to a great person’s enlightenment. I am grateful to this day.”

“A great person?”

Enihilus glanced deeply at the twin sal-trees. “A great figure… the one who sealed that demon back then. Benefactor Rocjourney is one of two contingencies left behind by that great figure. He is the first bodhi seed born from the twin sal-trees.”

“This story is short, but absolutely unimaginable. Benefactor… I hope you won’t turn tail and run off after you listen…” He closed his eyes and played with the beads in his hand, speaking no further.

Xu Yangyi chuckled, “That’s a cheap way of getting someone to do something you want, but there’s no harm in telling.”

Enihilus seemed to contemplate, organizing his words. After no less than a few minutes, he opened his eyes again. “When benefactor entered the Garden of the Twin Sal-Trees, you must have seen a few things. What do you think they were, benefactor?”

Xu Yangyi considered the matter for a little bit, and gave a straight answer based on what he thought. “Star atlases.”

“Indeed,” Enihilus said, “Star atlases… all of this realm’s star atlases.”

Sure enough, that was the case!

Xu Yangyi quickly asked, “This realm of ours… is Earth Realm?”

Enihilus shook his head. “No, I do not know.”

“I only know that our realm… is large, large to a boundless degree. Realms just like ours are all around. Still, I am unaware of the specific name. Nonetheless, this story begins here.”

He took a deep breath and said seriously, “This is not the only Garden of the Twin Sal-Trees.”

“Not the only one?” Xu Yangyi said.

Enihilus nodded. “Not the only one, I dare confirm. Furthermore, I can also confirm a matter. The Clearcloud Realm is at the very most east of this realm.”

“Why?”

“There were originally four sets of twin sal-trees,” Enihilus said. “To the east, west, north, and south, there are a pair of trees at each location. In each location, one of the trees thrived and the other withered. This was known as ‘The Four Withered and the Four Thrived’. In Buddhist sutra, it is said, ‘The twin trees to the east symbolize ‘the permanent and impermanent’, the twin trees to the south symbolize ‘the joy and joyless’, the twin trees to the west symbolize ‘the self and selflessness’, and the twin trees to the north symbolize ‘the clean and unclean’. And these two trees represent the permanent and the impermanent. In all likelihood, benefactor has already experienced the impermanent?”

Xu Yangyi recalled a string of weird events before and said lowly, “The impermanent points to…”

“Dreams,” Enihilus answered, “The dreamland permanently exists, yet comes and goes in the impermanent. Common sense cannot be explained.”

As expected, this was a dream!

Xu Yangyi’s guess had been verified, and he fired into his next question, “But no matter what, these are the twin sal-trees! Buddha’s resting place! How could…”

“How could no one be guarding it?” Enihilus laughed, “This is not the true twin sal-trees.”

“The true twin sal-trees is in the middle of our greater realm. The Clearcloud Realm is merely a representation at the very east. A seed of the true twin sal-trees was used, a stand-in, a symbol. Just like how Buddhist temples are everywhere, could it be that all temples are the Shaolin Temple?” [1]

“In ten thousand years, maturity is reached. It is this and nothing more, how could someone be stationed here?” he laughed, “If the Clearcloud Realm is a remote temple, then the two Buddhist acolytes of me and Rocjourney can already be considered a roaring incense stick.”

So that’s how it was.

Xu Yangyi nodded. He didn’t make any further interruptions. He realized that the real story was going to start now.

And as one would expect, Enihilus pondered for a short moment and said, “Over 1,200 years ago… the first cultivator from Earth came to the Clearcloud Realm.”

“The me from then saw that his divine abilities were unrivaled, and his arcane energies unlimited. At that time, the Clearcloud Realm had just barely grown for 800 years. The inhabitants were certainly not opponents. However, this Earth cultivator didn’t look down on the Clearcloud Realm, and neither did he stay. Perhaps it could be said that he couldn’t stay...” His expression grew solemn. “Because he… was escorting a terrible prisoner.”